Deep Learninf

No one, least of all Deep Purple themselves, expected the success of 2013's Now What?! It placed at number one on four European album charts and in the Top Ten of six other countries. It also sold exceptionally well: It was certified Gold in Poland, Germany (where it sold over 100,000), the Czech Republic, and Russia – it was the band's first album to crack the U.K.'s Top 40 charts in 20 years. For InFinite, Deep Purple re-enlisted producer Bob Ezrin. At this point, he is almost a sixth member. This the longest running lineup in their history. InFinite is a heavier and more expansive record than its predecessor, but it's not as consistent. Ian Gillian is in excellent form – still possessing intense expressive power and range, his falsetto remains intact four decades on. Don Airey's organ and keys – so elemental in DP's musical architecture – is physical, atmospheric, and dynamic.

Deep Purple have never quite been placed in the revered 1960s canon that includes the Who, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, or any of the other British rock bands who continue to reunite in various configurations to tour and even periodically release new albums, but given that the group has always been a riveting and brilliant live act, part prog, part heavy metal, part funky R&B, and imminently theatrical, that second-tier designation seems like both an oversight and a shame. Returning with this set, the band's first since 2005's Rapture of the Deep, and featuring a near-classic lineup of vocalist Ian Gillan, guitarist Steve Morse, bassist Roger Glover, drummer Ian Paice, and keyboardist Don Airey (Jon Lord, whose distorted organ parts were so much a part of the classic Deep Purple sound, left the band in 2002 and died in 2012 of pancreatic cancer), one can only marvel at how timeless it sounds, as if it were actually recorded in the early '70s and not tracked a little more than a decade into the 21st century.

While they started out in the late '60s as a psychedelic band, delved into progressive rock, and even recorded an album in collaboration with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Deep Purple achieved their greatest success as a strong, straightforward, hard rock band, anchored by the powerful guitar work of Ritchie Blackmore and the show-stopping vocals of Ian Gillan (and later David Coverdale). From 1970's Deep Purple in Rock to 1974's Stormbringer, Deep Purple were one of the most popular hard rock bands on Earth, and Deepest Purple: The Very Best of Deep Purple captures the band at the top of their form on some of their best-known songs…